


Windmills

by oselle



Series: Birthright [21]
Category: The Faculty (1998)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Friendship/Love, Gen, Mental Health Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-03
Updated: 2013-09-03
Packaged: 2017-12-25 12:44:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/953257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oselle/pseuds/oselle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zeke and Casey, in a moment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Windmills

When Casey saw the windmills, he made Zeke stop the car. It was a clear November day, endless blue sky over the brown prairie. And in the distance, windmills, hundreds of them, tall white towers, the only high points on the horizon. 

Casey rolled down the window and Zeke could hear them, even from that distance. Whoop-whoop-whoop , almost like a heartbeat. There was nothing to block sound on the prairie, it traveled for miles. 

A fence ran along the edge of the county road and Casey went and stood before it, staring at the windmills. Zeke got out and leaned on the car. It was warm for November, golden, the kind of day that made winter seem impossible. 

“That’s a wind farm,” he told Casey. Casey didn’t answer, and Zeke tried to light a cigarette, but the wind kept stealing his flame and he gave up. 

Casey watched the windmills and Zeke watched Casey. His hands, in a rare jitter-free moment, rested quietly on top of the fence. Casey’s hair blew back from his forehead. His eyes were the same color as the sky. Zeke wondered where Casey went in his head at times like these, when he saw something that transfixed him. He didn’t look unhappy, at any rate, but it was eerie, the way he could just stare. 

Whoop-whoop-whoop and the wind blew across the prairie, rippling through the brown grass like a wave. It was clean, the wind. Untroubled. Maybe that was what Casey liked. Maybe he just liked the sound of it, that low, thrumming heartbeat. Then again, maybe Casey wasn’t even seeing the windmills, or hearing them. Zeke never knew. 

Casey said something, but the wind took it. 

“You say something, Case?” Zeke asked. 

“See,” Casey said distantly. “The wind will carry me away.” 

Zeke sometimes thought that Casey carried on entire conversations in his head, and every once in a while some disjointed bit of one would slip out. But this made a shiver run down Zeke’s back, and raised goosebumps on his arms. He thought of the dandelions that girls would blow on, little white ghosts flying into the wind, lost. 

“Come on, Casey, let’s go,” Zeke said. He put his hand lightly on Casey’s arm, and Casey didn’t protest. 

Casey leaned his elbows out the window and rested his chin on them. He kept his eyes on the windmills as they drove away. Zeke could hear them even with the engine running, a beating heart over the prairie.


End file.
